Richard E Byrd Biography

In April 1918 he won his wings as a Naval Aviator. From the start of his flying career he demonstrated unusual ability. Byrd pioneered landing and navigationn tecniques. His war service was in Canada as Commander, US Naval Air Forces.

Byrd was soon called to Washington and made responsible for the transatlantic flight attempt of the NC flying boats in l9l9.

Interested in polar exploration from childhood, his adult involvement began in 1924 when he was appointed navigator for the proposed transpolar flight of the Navy's dirigible Shenandoah. When the flight was canceled Byrd began to organize his own Navy flight expedition to the Arctic. He joined forces with the MacMillan Expedition to northwest Greenland.

In 1926, he took leave from the Navy to organize a privately financed expedition to the Arctic. Byrd and his pilot, Floyd Bennett, claimed to have reached the North Pole on May 9, 1926. Both men were awarded the Medal of Honor after their return to the United States but,in later years, scholars have raised questions about the success of the expedition.

With commercial sponsorship, he completed the first multi-engine airplane crossing of the Atlantic to France. During the remaining years of his life he was involved in five expeditions to Antarctica. He flew over the South Pole in November 1929, and spent most of the winter of 1934 alone in a meteorological hut, some one hundred miles into the interior.

Byrd remained a promoter of Antarctic exploration, but with the onset of World War II he returned to active service and earned two decorations.

In the early post-war years, Byrd participated in the organization of the US Navy Antarctic Developments Project in 1946-47. He remained an influential figure in polar research until his death in 1957.